Thanks for everyone's input. I apparently wasn't clear in my question. I'm not adverse to giving the bank information so they can run a credit check, check employment, verify income, and/or check our assets, if it results in getting a pre-approval letter. I couldn't find a bank that would do that based on a check of the criteria above. Every bank said I must make loan application and they won't just "check us out" and give us a pre-approval letter. The realtor said I should be able to get this with a simple phone call but I am not finding that to be the case. My hesitance at making loan application is that I don't want to formalize anything until I have found the property and the seller's have accepted our offer. It just doesn't make sense to me to make loan app without knowing what I'm buying. What, for example, would happen if I applied for a loan, found the property, made an offer and the offer wasn't accepted? Now, I am on the hook to settle on a loan to purchase nothing (not to mention being out the loan app fee).. It may take a while for me to find an alternative property of interest and the amount of the loan might be different. In that case, I'd have to start all over again. I did start with banks that I have a relationship with, that is how I know that they don't provide pre-approval letters without loan app. I'm glad to hear that several of you have dealt with Wells Fargo, I will definitely keep them in mind. All of you are probably right, I should ask the realtor who will represent us where she recommends I get the letter of pre-approval. (The realtor that I spoke with in OC was actually the listing agent and I would want to get my own buyer's agent for obvious reasons.). I thought it would be easier for me to find a bank in my home town - to avoid the 3 hour drive if I needed to provide more paperwork - but with fax machines I guess it doesn't really matter. I didn't realize that I would be better off looking for a bank in OC because of their knowledge of flood plains, wetland restrictions, etc as Eileen Musser pointed out. Good advice, thanks. - Tue Jun 3 2008, 09:23